More on Reagan

I love the letter that Liepa posted below, sent to Nancy Reagan by Vaiva after the President's death. I just want to add a couple thoughts.

In 1980, when Vaiva and I traveled to Lithuania, I did not know much about Reagan, other than he was a former actor, Governor of California, and was despised by Democrats. I was not the strong conservative that I am today. The Lithuanians we met in Vilnius knew much more about Reagan than I did. They already were very hopeful about the prospect of a Reagan Presidency. They were right.

So I picked up on their enthusiasm, and became a Reagan supporter myself.

Few people today remember or appreciate how bad a President Jimmy Carter was. I particularly remember articles in the press about how the job of the Presidency had become too large for one man to handle, so that Carter was doing the best that could be expected. That line of BS has been sent to the dustbin of history.

The stock market was bad, there was little economic growth, yet inflation was high and going higher. We had long lines at the gas pumps. Reagan changed all that. Over the persistent objections of a fiercely adverse press, he succeeded.

If anyone had said, in 1980, I have a plan to win the Cold War without firing a single shot, without costing a single American life, it only takes money, people would have called that person crazy. In 1980, capitalism was thought by the elites to be a failure, communism the inevitable wave of the future. Reagan did not promise to win the Cold War, but win it he did. He did it with words, with leadership, with money well spent. Without violence, without direct confrontation of any kind. He will rank among the greatest of American Presidents.

So. In 1984 Vaiva and I were dancers with Vetra, and the festival was in Cleveland. Vaiva was not in charge yet, Ruta Mitskunas (spelling?), the founding leader, was still running the show. At the beginning of the performance we had the parade of dance groups. This is a complicated thing to choreograph, to get everyone in the right order, out at the right time, announced from the podium, it's all very tricky. But I guess it went better than expected, I suspect we got ahead of schedule.

I remember being a bit frazzled, nervous but excited, waiting in the stands next to Vaiva, having finished our walk out, getting impatient to get started with the dancing. The group was only a year old, I had only performed in public three times at the point, and Vetra's performance in the Cleveland rehearsals had been disappointing. So the anxiety was justified.

There seemed to be some delay, some disorganization at the podium. What are they waiting for? The crowd started murmuring. Let's get started already! Get the show on the road! And then the announcement on the P.A. system:

"Ladies and gentlemen, President Ronald Reagan."

You could have heard a pin drop.

He spoke to us by telephone for no more than five minutes. Let me restate: He spoke to us. I've heard innumerable politicians with their nice sounding, solicitous but generic platitudes. That's not what this was. President Reagan had been properly briefed, he really knew who we were, he knew what we were doing, more remarkably, he knew why we were doing it, he appreciated and respected what we were doing, and he got all that across to us in five minutes. Best example of a "Great Communicator" I ever experienced.

Not bombastic, not patronizing. Genuine. Heartfelt. As Vaiva wrote to Mrs. Reagan, his attention to small details set him apart from almost all others in high office.